Necrosonic Festival returns to Mansfield Tavern on Saturday, August 22 2026, and the full lineup has been revealed to the masses! With dual headliners Rivers of Nihil (USA) and our very own Psycroptic, alongside exclusive reunions, one-off performances and long-awaited resurrections ~ this year’s ritual is the most formidable yet.
With a massive deference to Australian talent, this year’s line-up is: Rivers of Nihil, Psycroptic, Gravemind, Lynchmada (Exclusive ‘One Last Time’), Segression (30 Year Reunion), Minus Life (Resurrected – Exclusive), Pestilential Shadows, Five Star Prison Cell (Resurrected), Wxrldfxcker, Witchskull, Dreamkillers (Special EP Set), Helm (Resurrected – One-Off Show), M.S.B.I. (Resurrected – One-Off Show), Barriers, Meth Leppard, Permafog, Destruktor, Gutless, F.U.C, RUN, John Lee Spider, The Matador, Body Prison, Growth, Grotesque Bliss, Vyrion, Neomantra, Nembutolik, Slaughtercult and Bruxa.
HEAVY has thrown down the challenge and sent a Q & A sheet out to all bands, with any that don’t return one completed having to buy us a beer at Necrosonic. So while we are quietly hoping we get minimal replies, a couple have gotten back to us already, and today we feature PESTILENTIAL SHADOWS.
Tickets and more information: https://necrosonicfestival.com/
Pestilential Shadows is an atmospheric black metal band from New South Wales, originally formed in 2003 by founding multi-instrumentalist Balam. Standing as one of Australia’s longest-running active black metal acts, the group explores bleak, uncompromising themes of plague, death, and decay.
Over more than two decades, the band has meticulously crafted an immersive and intense sonic palette characterised by complex instrumentation, aggressive pacing, and melodic undercurrents. Following early underground milestones like Ephemeral (2014) and Revenant (2021), they signed with German label Northern Silence Productions. This partnership sparked a major creative surge, yielding their seventh album, Devil’s Hammer, in 2024, followed swiftly by their critically acclaimed eighth full-length record, Wretch, in late 2025.
Q & A
HEAVY: NECROSONIC 2026 is almost upon us. How far out from August 22 will you allow yourself to get excited?
PESTILENTIAL SHADOWS: It is a good opportunity to play one of the only extreme metal festivals to a (mostly) QLD crowd, so rather than us being excited, we want people to be excited to see us and join in the ritual.
H: What does it mean to your band to be playing NECROSONIC?
PS: It will be good to reach a larger audience that would maybe not have seen us if not for the festival. The crew seem to run a well-oiled machine, so we are glad we can take part.
H: How important are festivals like NECROSONIC for the Australian music scene?
PS: There are not many festivals that cater to the more extreme types of music (death & black metal) so I think they are needed to build the underground scene back up to where it would’ve been in the 90’s and early 2000’s.
H: It’s a long day of music. What will you be doing to make sure you will still be standing come your set time?
PS: Sitting and resting. But we are always keen to see other bands and meet with new and old devotees of extreme music.
H: Give me your Top 3 Festival survival tips.
PS: Drinking plenty of water as well as alcohol. You need to stay hydrated as well as being hammered.
H: Which band – other than yourself – do you think will get up to the most mischief on the day?
PS: I think any of the bands would probably get up to more mischief than us. We take our live performances quite seriously, so we are quite conservative at our live rituals.
H: What one song of yours would you tell festival-goers to listen to if they haven’t heard you play before?
PS: If they appreciate fast black metal, I would say Devil’s Hammer. Most of our music is quite atmospheric, so getting through our set should be a spiritual journey and taken as a whole piece.
H: Will you be taking requests on the day?
PS: Definitely not.
H: Run us through your typical live show and what punters can expect.
PS: A visceral journey through death. Intense energy and mysticism leading up to an eternal rest.
H: What’s your latest release?
PS: Wretch.
H: Finally, what plans does your band have for the rest of 2026 and into 2027?
PS: We are just finishing a European tour at the moment, then our next live performance will be Necrosonic. September, we will be playing Call From The Grave Festival in Sydney, then working on new material for a potential new album.
